Dear Hope Friends,It was not until I learned that the baseball game was canceled that realized how nice a night at home sounded! Followed by a day at home -- without any particular place to be! Is this what Sabbath feels like -- I might have forgotten.Many of YOU have expressed your appreciation and understanding that after an unexpected season of major fundraising and moving a church -- followed ...  Read More

Dear Hope Friends,Recognizing and respecting that it's that busy time of year known as May-cember, you are welcome to experience the community and spiritual connection that comes from worshipping together at 9:30 and 11:00.Tomorrow is Pentecost. I'll touch on what that is and why it might matter to us.I'd love to see you online or in-person! JennieP.S. If you are newer to Hope, and we have not had...  Read More

Dear Hope Church,For my entire life I have been United Methodist, with an asterisk beside it. I've been proud of the rich history of honoring Scripture and Science, Women in Ministry, Creation Care, Personal Spiritual Growth, and Rich Justice Ministries. However, my entire life, there is has been the one thing ... and so, I joined LGBTQ+ inclusion and resistance movements starting in college waaaa...  Read More

Dear Friends,This week has been as exhausting as anticipated, and it has been different than other General Conferences - in the best way. There is a spirit of joy, collaboration, respect, and belonging! In short you really feel the presence of the Spirit!To catch you up: I am serving as a reserve delegate for the Illinois Great Rivers Conference of the United Methodist Church at the General Confer...  Read More

Dear Hope Friends,It is impossible to talk about Christ and Culture without talking about technology. Specificially tomorrow, we'll look at the smartphone. It has changed the way we live as individuals AND as a culture. Without ascribing values, morals, or opinions: communication and information-gathering has changed. Tomorrow, we'll send that through the filter of Scripture, our traditions, our p...  Read More

It's not difficult to see how religion has been used and abused to cause harm and wars and "my side is right" thinking. We all know that Scripture taken out of context can justify almost anything.So, how can we allow our faith to inform our understanding of culture in a way that is helpful?Over the next few weeks, Hope Church is going to take a stab at this question. We'll lean heavily into our va...  Read More

What a Great Week for HopeAfter celebrating Resurrection last Sunday, we are taking a moment to give thanks to community and to God for Hope's new start in Bloomington-Normal!First of all, I was blown away by the participation in our ribbon cutting on Thursday - thanks for everyone who came! Knowing that 4:30 in the afternoon is still the work day for many people, I was expecting about 35 people. ...  Read More

Tomorrow at 9:30 and 11:00 Hope Church will gather online and in-person for Easter Sunday. Hope Kids will take place during both 9:30 and 11:00, too. Welcome your friends to join us or those curious to check online here or YouTube @BeHopeChurchBloNoour app found at BeHopeChurchor Roku, AppleTV, or GoogleTV!A Story of Our Greatest Failure...And YetYesterday a memory popped up from 11 years ago adve...  Read More

Hey People of Hope,A fun surprise to this season of change at Hope Church is how often our new location opens the door to another new community connection! I love meeting new people, especially those who are looking for a community like ours.I'd like to make it easy for YOU to offer connections and invitations, too. We are going to offer THREE great chances back-to-back:March 31st Easter SundayThu...  Read More

Dear Hope Friends, (I'm not sure why this copied red!)It's been a BIG week.Mary Harsh and I spent the first part of this week in St. Louis at the Beyond Conference, learning with other progressive and invitational churches. Many of them are also United Methodist, and yes, they had heard of us (thanks to our dear Ms. Penny!) What's fun is crowd thinks of us as role models! It was so nice to worship...  Read More

Dear Friends,Each week there are situations around the world which we need to offer our thoughts and prayers - including Syria, Gaza, and Ukraine daily for a multitude of autrocities. Sometimes there are particular ways we can move to thoughts, prayers, AND actions (beyond social media). This week in Owasso, OK a 16 year old nonbinary teen named Nex Benedict was assaulted in a high school bathroom...  Read More

Dear Hope Church,The season of Lent began on Wednesday. It is 40 Days of Spiritual Preparation for Easter. Whereas the spiritual preparation of Advent leading to Christmas gets intertwined with all the parties and celebrations of that season, Lent has remained largely a religious observance. It's a chance to say: "What do I want my spiritual life to be like?" "What spiritual practices will I start...  Read More